Early voters crowd polls in Orlando area as registration swells

As Florida ushered in early voting Monday, 103-year-old Zadie Thompson cast her ballot for the first time since she voted for President Johnson in 1964.

Thompson sat in her wheelchair in front of the Washington Park Branch Library in Orlando, where a line of voters wrapped the building and cars circled the parking lot as if patrolling a mall at Christmastime. When asked why she was voting, the Barack Obama supporter cast her crystalline blue eyes to the distance and quietly said: "Change."

Spurred by a close contest that could inspire even a centenarian to go to the polls, Florida's early-voting crowds swelled Monday with two- and three-hour waits for many people who wanted to vote on the first day possible before the Nov. 4 election. Orange County had more than 7,000 early voters Monday -- double the number of first-day early voters in 2004. Lines were so long in South Florida that U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, said he may file a lawsuit to have additional voting machines placed at early-voting locations.

In downtown Orlando, teacher Tammy Burns said she spent more than 80 minutes waiting in line to vote for presidential candidate John McCain because she thinks America needs the kind of values and policy the Republican brings.

"There is too much at stake in the country right now, and I really care about values, the economy and the political arena with the war," said Burns, who also turned out to support Florida's Amendment 2, which defines marriage as a union of one man and one woman.

What appears to be record turnout for early voting reflects a record number of new voters. Since January, a million new voters have registered, boosting Democrats' lead to 657,000 voters, according to new numbers released by the state. Among Florida's 11.2 million voters, 4.72 million are Democrats and just over 4 million are Republicans.

Most of the new voters are minorities. While the statewide voter roll has grown about 8 percent during the past two years, the number of Hispanic voters has increased 21 percent during that period, and the number of black voters is up nearly 18 percent.

Florida Republicans have said that even though there are fewer Republicans registered, the GOP tends to do a better job mobilizing its voter base. McCain officials say they're winning the absentee vote, with about 295,000 Republicans requesting absentee ballots statewide, compared with 199,000 Democrats. In Orange County, Republicans and Democrats have evenly split the requests for absentee ballots.

While McCain political director Mike DuHaime acknowledged that Democrats have fared better with early voting, the GOP is banking on targeted mail, phone banks and door-to-door work to get Republicans to the polls before early voting ends Nov. 2.

Long lines did not completely define early voting Monday. Brazilian-born missionary Alberto deBarros had virtually no wait at the Lake County Administration Building in Tavares to cast his first free-election vote for the Republican ticket. Lake County election officials expected as many as 40,000 early voters this year, compared with the more than 32,000 who voted early in 2004.

"I couldn't wait for this moment," said deBarros, who held a pair of McCain-Palin signs.

And in Seminole County, morning voters moved through lines in about 20 minutes. "They can get through the line 10 times faster than at the Simpsons ride in Universal," said Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Mike Ertel.

Voting was similarly steady at the Osceola County Supervisor of Elections office Monday afternoon, with little waiting.

Not all the voting went smoothly Monday, however. At the Washington Park voting site, a precinct worker manning the door created a small furor when he allowed people with sample ballots to move to the front of the line.

Lorin Jones, a poll watcher registered for the Republican Party, objected to the preferential treatment. "You could end up starting a riot out here," he said.

Elections officials said precinct workers quickly corrected the error, and most other voting went smoothly.